zeiris
11-11-2007, 09:02
I feel that I have reached the pinnacle of PVP fissure druiddom. Sadly I don't play anymore - so I'm here to share my understanding.
If you compare Fissure to Blizzard you'll find that it sucks. Fire druids with enigma are NOT a "competitive" build period - I'll leave explaining the "why" to other people.
The remedy to the suck is to load up on damage and ignore defense, then camp town. Fissure graphics disappear when you enter town, but the damage doesn't - thus the build can become viable, IE achieving a high K:D ratio in a pub.
General Setup:
-ravenlore, 30/30 weapon, 20/20 shield, 20/20 armor, all +skill gear
-lower resists wand on switch/in stash
-lightning resist shield in stash versus javazons and trappers, your worst enemies
-cta+spirit in stash/on switch for when you want to BO
Note that 3 ele/3 fissure 2 socket pelts do less damage than a perfect ravenlore - ignore them. An all-damage setup has low FHR and FCR, but there are ways to deal with that.
Contrary to popular public opinion, the fissure druid does indeed take skill - although you tend to kill or severely maim everything in a single fissure, you yourself die in one hit. (6K life isn't much different from 1K life when you have no resists or DR.) To avoid embarrassing deaths versus smiters and WW barbs you need to juke/fake them into attacking. When they walk/WW into town, run out and cast - repeat as needed. Another useful tactic is the "bait": once you know how much your fissure hurts a target, you can run out over your fissure. They will probably give immediate chase, and if you calculated right, die.
I've used the above build for quite a while. It's possible to pimp it out with 5/20scs and tri-resist boots to reach max res - but even if you use dupes to lower cost, the performance gain will not be worth it. Sometimes the build will test your patience: it's an all or nothing deal, where you can both get lots of kills, and die in one lucky hit. The "die in one hit" is a bit of a turnoff, since it can prevent you from reaching your full potential.
Luckily, there's a solution.
This is where the fissure druid becomes godly, pro, uber, gosu, or whatever other silly adjective the brain-addled masses use to describe poorly designed game features.
I am going to highlight this bit because it is important. If you cast fissure with weapon/shield A, then switch to your alternate weapon/shield B, the fissure does damage according to weapon/shield B.
This means that you can have a 30/20+20/20 on one switch, and a wizardspike+stormshield on the other. You can run out with your "tank" switch, cast, run in, switch, and hit people for maximum damage.
This instantly adds a great deal of depth and possibility to what used to be a relatively straightforward character. You now have the option of momentarily losing damage but gaining survivability... Using it efficiently will take practice.
Hope someone finds this useful, and...
Flame on!
If you compare Fissure to Blizzard you'll find that it sucks. Fire druids with enigma are NOT a "competitive" build period - I'll leave explaining the "why" to other people.
The remedy to the suck is to load up on damage and ignore defense, then camp town. Fissure graphics disappear when you enter town, but the damage doesn't - thus the build can become viable, IE achieving a high K:D ratio in a pub.
General Setup:
-ravenlore, 30/30 weapon, 20/20 shield, 20/20 armor, all +skill gear
-lower resists wand on switch/in stash
-lightning resist shield in stash versus javazons and trappers, your worst enemies
-cta+spirit in stash/on switch for when you want to BO
Note that 3 ele/3 fissure 2 socket pelts do less damage than a perfect ravenlore - ignore them. An all-damage setup has low FHR and FCR, but there are ways to deal with that.
Contrary to popular public opinion, the fissure druid does indeed take skill - although you tend to kill or severely maim everything in a single fissure, you yourself die in one hit. (6K life isn't much different from 1K life when you have no resists or DR.) To avoid embarrassing deaths versus smiters and WW barbs you need to juke/fake them into attacking. When they walk/WW into town, run out and cast - repeat as needed. Another useful tactic is the "bait": once you know how much your fissure hurts a target, you can run out over your fissure. They will probably give immediate chase, and if you calculated right, die.
I've used the above build for quite a while. It's possible to pimp it out with 5/20scs and tri-resist boots to reach max res - but even if you use dupes to lower cost, the performance gain will not be worth it. Sometimes the build will test your patience: it's an all or nothing deal, where you can both get lots of kills, and die in one lucky hit. The "die in one hit" is a bit of a turnoff, since it can prevent you from reaching your full potential.
Luckily, there's a solution.
This is where the fissure druid becomes godly, pro, uber, gosu, or whatever other silly adjective the brain-addled masses use to describe poorly designed game features.
I am going to highlight this bit because it is important. If you cast fissure with weapon/shield A, then switch to your alternate weapon/shield B, the fissure does damage according to weapon/shield B.
This means that you can have a 30/20+20/20 on one switch, and a wizardspike+stormshield on the other. You can run out with your "tank" switch, cast, run in, switch, and hit people for maximum damage.
This instantly adds a great deal of depth and possibility to what used to be a relatively straightforward character. You now have the option of momentarily losing damage but gaining survivability... Using it efficiently will take practice.
Hope someone finds this useful, and...
Flame on!